Cradlerobber
by Canadino
Summary: Or No Idiot's Going to Steal My Son Away in an Act of Theivery or Cradlerobbing! Spain/Roma, Netherlands/Belgium; AU sequel to Powdered Sugar


**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

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Cradlerobber

"Ah, Antonio, Romano, I can't believe it~! I would have thought, of the both of us, I would be the one with a child first!"

"Maybe you should get on that, before you lose your ovaries."

Charlie considered reaching over and slapping Romano for his cheek, but considered the alternative; and really, Giorgio was really quite too cute to turn her attention to his brash, blunt 'mother'. Ned, sitting rather stoutly on the loveseat beside her, stared mutely at the two-year-old, who was quickly sapping his wife's attention more than he'd like to admit. "Oh, he's so adorable; so strange, really, how luck works like this!"

"Indeed," Antonio said wistfully, looking quite pleased with himself in the plush armchair, grumpy spouse leaning on one of its arms – though Charlie could barely blame him; he deserved to be satisfied with himself after facing Ledell and possibly the law and exiting unscathed with a husband in tow. If anyone was going to win best fairy tale life, it would be Antonio.

Charlie was very much jealous.

The apartment was much different than the town Charlie had found Antonio in three years ago; for one, it was located in a much busier district in the area and it had the absence of one very obnoxious albino housemate. Gilbert had moved out after the marriage and had apparently hit up some of his old acquaintances for room and board (but last Antonio had heard, one had been a very avid piano player since his youth and Gilbert had been on the receiving end of many an angered concerto). Francis had moved deeper into the city, where the rising vocalist Matthew Williams was currently residing. The sitting room was no longer just an awkward space with a bulky television and a cracked coffee table. It was a home.

Giorgio made a happy sound and tried to reach up to pull at Charlie's headband. Romano cleared his throat and the boy looked up at the sound, pausing in its explorations of this new female friend before breaking away to totter back to his brunette father, humming to himself when Romano picked him up and placed him on his knee. Antonio smiled gently at his son, who began fiddling with a loose thread on his tiny pants before turning and beaming at Charlie and Ned.

"Do you wanna see some photos? Giorgio is really cute in them~!"

Pulling out a photo album from underneath the polished wood coffee table, Antonio handed it enthusiastically at Charlie, who received it with equal energy. Ned looked hardly interested as she cracked open the cover and instantly squealed in only the way a woman can at glossy pictures of children. "Oh my goodness, he's so cute!"

"We took him to the beach and he preferred to play with the seagulls the entire time," Antonio said, pointing to the numerous pictures of Giorgio in a rather sandy background. "He never went into the water, but he always carried that inner tube." And in every picture, Giorgio was clutching at a blue-clear inner tube, as if somehow he would use it, a budding lifeguard.

"Roma, you're also in every picture," Charlie pointed out, poking a corner of a photo with neatly manicured nails. "There's a snatch of you in every shot."

"Of course," Romano huffed, keeping Giorgio from falling from his lap. "I won't let him out of my sight, or else he might get snatched away by someone completely unsavory who steals their spouses from their beds." At this, Charlie and Ned glanced at Antonio, who was grinning in spite of himself.

"Roma is a perfect mother~" Antonio chimed, laughing when the 'mother' rapped him across the head the way Charlie wanted to moments earlier. She turned her attention back to the pages and pages of meticulously organized mementos, cooing softly at each new image.

"Women," Ned muttered, speaking more into the fist he was leaning his chin against. Charlie kicked him indignantly with her bright red heels.

"Ned, so help me god, if our child is not as cute as Giorgio, I will divorce you right on the spot!" She held up a manila page with a picture of Giorgio holding a paintbrush. "Look how cute. You're not looking."

"The real thing is right there," Ned grumbled, waving vaguely in Giorgio's direction. Charlie stuck her tongue out at him and turned back again to the album.

Presently, a kettle whistled in the kitchen, a high shrill sound that resonated in the room. Antonio made to get up but Romano pushed Giorgio into his lap and went to tend to it soundlessly. Charlie glanced up to make sure he was out of the room before closing the photo album gently. "It's so strange," she whispered, "that Giorgio looks almost _exactly_ like him!"

"He does," Antonio mused, turning his son to look at him. "All the way up to the hair kink. Except Giorgio's is much more unruly. Roma went at it with a comb for hours and it refuses to stay down."

"How did that happen?" Ned asked, voicing Charlie's unspoken question. Antonio raised his eyes, understanding the topic had jumped from hair to something else. Charlie nodded quickly, leaning in as Antonio bobbed Giorgio thoughtfully on his knee.

"It was unexpected myself," Antonio admitted, tapping his chin. "I was surprised when Romano expressed interest in having a child. If I had been in his case, I would have sworn off parenthood."

"Someone's got to do it right," Romano's voice came from the kitchen, although it hardly sounded disgruntled as it usually did. "The idiot started speaking about artificial wombs as if the only problem was that pregnancy was just not happening." He poked his head out of the kitchen, holding a can of biscotti. "Like _I_ had ovaries."

"So Roma told me I was a lot of names and said that there was an orphanage we could contact, so I did, and they asked me what kind of child I was interested in. I thought it would be nice having another Italian in the house and it just so happened they had a boy in need of parents from Seborga…"

"Months of paperwork later and here is Giorgio Carriedo." Kitchen sounds of plates and silverware trickled into the room. "Giorgio! Come help _papá_ with something." At this, Giorgio tapped Antonio's hand on his shoulder and clamored off to the kitchen, where he was well received with copious amounts of soft Italian.

"He seems calmer, Romano," Charlie murmured. Antonio closed his eyes.

"I think we all are, Charlie."

"How is Ledell taking it?"

"Her? Oh, she loves him. Comes around all the time, _where's my sweetie Giorgio! Come to nonna_! I think he's the only reason why she can smile in my presence."

"Don't be stupid; she's forgiven you for everything since the wedding."

"Hmm. But she still gives me looks from time to time. I don't think it's anything a couple years can erase."

Charlie looked crestfallen for a moment before jumping on another train of thought. "What about those two detectives? Have they called on you yet?"

"No; last time I heard from Francis, they had gone to New York City for some big case. That man, Alfred, rarely really talks to Matthew. He's probably in the news, but I barely look." Antonio smiled fondly, something Charlie noticed he had a good knack for doing. "I've got many other things on my mind."

"What about the twin?" Ned interjected. "The noisy one."

"Feliciano?" Antonio chuckled. "I think he's still trying to get Ludwig to adopt _anything_ at the moment. He wants to take care of more than just three dogs. I think he's going to have to work on a proposal first if he wants children. Ludwig's a bit traditional like that."

Ned snorted. "_Real_ traditional." Charlie fisted in him in the arm.

Giorgio darted into the room, holding a dish of biscotti high above his head. "Biscotti," he announced, before setting it down on the table. Pleased, he sensed an ally in Charlie and walked over to her, climbing onto the seat next to her and smiling. "Biscotti, _nonna_."

"That's _my_ wife you're calling old," Ned grumbled, wrapping an arm around Charlie as if he had any threat from Giorgio. The boy frowned and glared as best as a two-year-old could at the man before reaching out for biscotti himself. Romano came back from the kitchen a moment later with tea.

"Things are pretty good," Antonio said, out of the blue when they had all taken their tea. Romano glanced at him and Charlie smiled to herself as she leaned against Ned, and it appeared, for someone as dense as Antonio, that he had actually hit the nail straight on the head.

Owari

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Note: This is one of the only times I will ever touch on Powdered Sugar ever again. That POS, I still find amazing that people actually like it. The only other time I'd return is for a prequel. Giorgio is Seborga, whom I have heard fans speculate that he is 'Spain and Roma's love child'. Giorgio is the name of a prince of Seborga, and it's rather cute, isn't it? I sort of wanted to touch on the future here. I thank you all for putting up with my writing through Powdered Sugar and this little snapshot. I'm nearly done with my application and hopefully things fall through and I can go back to happily chugging out fanfictions. Life.


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